Fashion in Nineteenth-Century Literature: Critical Essay by Phillipe Perrot

SOURCE: Perrot, Phillipe. “The Imperatives of Propriety.” In Fashioning the Bourgeoisie: A History of Clothing in the Nineteenth Century, translated by Richard Bienvenu, pp. 87-123. Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press, 1994.

In the following excerpt, originally published in French as Les dessus et les dessous de la bourgeoisie: une histoire du vêtement au XIX^e siècle in 1981, Perrot examines rules of fashion as outlined in nineteenth-century manuals of etiquette.